barf
Americanverb
-
barfs,
present (3rd person singular)
-
barfed,
past participle, past
-
barfing
present participle
verb
noun
-
the act of vomiting
-
the matter ejected in vomiting
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
barfsimple
-
barfssimple
-
have barfedperfect
-
has barfedperfect
-
am barfingprogressive
-
are barfingprogressive
-
is barfingprogressive
-
have been barfingperfect progressive
-
has been barfingperfect progressive
Past
-
barfedsimple
-
had barfedperfect
-
was barfingprogressive
-
were barfingprogressive
-
had been barfingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of barf
First recorded in 1955–60; expressive word of uncertain origin
Vocabulary lists containing barf
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
To get cleared, I have to pass a pre-flight instruction class how to use a parachute and an explanation what to do with the barf bag.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 23, 2026
Last Friday, Schlossberg held a rally at Manhattan’s Terminal 5, the city’s worst music venue, known primarily as a place to barf while electronic music plays on the dance floor.
From Slate ● Jun. 18, 2026
I thought that eating and drinking too much of that stuff was supposed to make you barf.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 28, 2026
Honestly, I felt like I wanted to barf.
From New York Times ● Feb. 22, 2023
“For solos, right after lunch. And Zara, please save your barf for outside.”
From "Maybe He Just Likes You" by Barbara Dee
The exhibition’s pneumatic tube busting through digital walls is its own such raucous canal, although here it backs up and barfs with a decidedly cynical edge.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 29, 2022
Then a chubby fellow wearing sunglasses and a red sleeveless Q-Anon T-Shirt barfs brown liquid all over a picnic table.
From Washington Times ● Feb. 23, 2022
These are not polite, quiet pukes, though, but rather booming, bellowing barfs.
From Newsweek ● Mar. 23, 2015
"But what she really likes is the way he barfs."
From The Guardian ● Apr. 7, 2013
Jude barfs bright blue fluorescent barf all over the table, but I’m the only one who notices.
From "I'll Give You the Sun" by Jandy Nelson
Thomas: I don’t think I’ve ever laughed during a movie as hard as when that puppet barfed for five minutes straight in Team America.
From The Guardian ● Sep. 11, 2020
I think the zeitgeist barfed all this stuff up at the same time.
From New York Times ● Aug. 18, 2020
I tumbled out and barfed beside the road.
From The New Yorker ● Dec. 16, 2019
A buffoon who barfed in the lap of the Japanese prime minister during a state dinner.
From Washington Times ● Dec. 2, 2018
“Hunh! You, uh, look like a planktonburger that’s been, uh, barfed up by a seagull and, uh, left out in the sun,” said Ton-Ton in an unusual flight of poetry.
From "The House of the Scorpion" by Nancy Farmer
One reason I can confidently assert that she's not as dumb as she acts is she's undeniably swift when barfing up bad faith retorts, usually to innocent questions she's just pretending are "attacks."
From Salon ● Jun. 23, 2025
After that game, Hawkins revealed the components of his final meal before the barfing began: steak, macaroni and cheese, mashed potatoes and calamari.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 7, 2023
This isn’t world building; it’s more like world barfing.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 14, 2023
The movie version is a shrieking CGI carnival full of poop jokes and barfing pumpkins.
From The Verge ● Sep. 23, 2018
“I’d try to imagine the worst thing that could happen, like getting the flu or barfing for a couple of days.”
From "The Line Tender" by Kate Allen
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
